Visual UGC: The Power of Photos and Videos for eCommerce

June 25, 2024

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3 min read

The human brain can process an image sixty thousand times faster than it does a written text. This fact has made visual commerce one of the best ways to stay ahead of the competition. From customer reviews to unboxing/try-on videos on Youtube, your clients use different visual mediums to share with the world how happy they're with your brand or products.

But do you know how to make this user-generated content (UGC) work to your advantage? If you're still unsure what constitutes UGC or how to incorporate it into your eCommerce storefront to increase conversions, you've come to the right place. This article will discuss an overview of visual UGC, its importance in building customer trust, and some best practices to use it to drive sales.

About The Author

Stamped.io is a Marketing Platform for eCommerce, designed to boost sales and customer retention through product reviews, referrals, and customer loyalty programs.

What Are Visual Marketing and Visual UGC?

Visual marketing refers to using images and videos to convey valuable information to attract visitors to your website and brand. Examples of visual marketing include using images with inspiring or educational text, infographics, and branded signatures to promote audio and video content. UGC marketing is similar to visual marketing, only that it entails using content generated by the consumers. It includes customer reviews, YouTube testimonies, and images posted on social media by your happy customers.

Importance Of Visual Reviews To Build Trust

UGC is a less pushy way of promoting products and brands. Companies turn the spotlight away from themselves and capitalize on the earned content from loyal customers who endorse products on social media. This kind of content can help build and nurture a sense of loyalty and trust in the following ways.

Personalized Shopper's Experiences

Studies show that93%of people perceive friends and family as the most trusted sources of information, especially when choosing services and products. Today, friends and family extend to the people you know and connect with in the digital landscape. That makes visual UGC an excellent digital friends and family word-of-mouth strategy. Therefore, it would help brands raise greater customer awareness and engagement. It's also a tactic of enabling previous customers to share vital information, and the ripple effect continues.

Show How Your Product Gets Used In Real Life

User-generated photos offer a significant boost in conversion and add-to-cart rates by showing prospective shoppers your products in real life. These elements enable buyers to understand if the product or service is right for them, how it can make their life better, and its effectiveness, thereby motivating them to purchase the products.

Social Proof

Customers relate more with endorsements from others who have purchased and loved your brand than polished branded content. Therefore, by using visual UGC in your social ads and product recommendations, you're creating a personal, approachable, and engaging customer experience that shows authenticity about your brand and products.

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Types of visual UGC: Photo Reviews & Video Reviews

There are various visual user-generated content strategies, including:

Photo Reviews

This type of visual UGC is similar to product reviews, which integrate photos of your product or a customer using it. This allows potential buyers to make a deeper connection with your brand and better understand how they can benefit from it. Besides, photo reviews build more credibility for your product and have been shown to influence over 53% of millennials' buying decisions.

With over 1.8 billion Video Reviews

Using videos of consumers using or explaining the details of your product is an excellent marking strategy that allows potential buyers to imagine themselves using your brand.

However, unlike photo reviews, video reviews aren't often supported on Google, Amazon, and other eCommerce platforms. However, they can be posted on YouTube, with numerous personalities crafting a digital persona that offer advice on products to purchase and companies to support. You can also post video reviews on social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Tips to Use Visuals to Drive E-commerce Sales

You need to add uniqueness to make UGC stand out and be more enticing to the consumers. Here are some tips for using visuals to drive eCommerce sales:

Tagged Photos

One of the simplest and effective ways of promoting your product with UGC is using tagged photos. You engage the users by liking, commenting, and sharing the tagged images. You can also create a brand hashtag and encourage customers to post their videos or pictures with the hashtag.

Unboxing Videos

Unboxing videos has gained popularity over the past few years. It involves someone (usually a reviewer or a micro-influencer) opening a new product for the first time. You can encourage users to post their unboxing experience to target the close-knit circle of that customer's friends. Alternatively, you can contact an influencer to set up a sponsored unboxing video.

Shoppable Product Image

A new development known as the Instagram shoppable photoshas added a new dimension to the visual UGC. With shoppable images, a user can tag your products and allow others to buy what is on display with just a few clicks. Plus, customers can take photographs in real life and post them immediately to check out the page for the product.

Exploded and Cutaway Views

Educating your customers about your product is an ideal way of generating trust and brand loyalty. So, encourage your customers to show others what's inside the product and highlight why you stand head and shoulders above your competitors. For instance, if you have a technical product, exploded views indicate that consumers can view the intricacies and detailed craftsmanship of the product. Similarly, you can use a cutaway image, which trims away pieces of the product to let them see inside.

Boost your visual UGC marketing with Stamped.io

With Stamped.io review generation tools, you can harness the power of visual marketing and visual UGC and engage users with your brand promotions and activities. We can help you centralize your outreach with unparalleled visual UGC review generation campaigns that will boost your brand credibility and conversion rates.

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Cici Nguyen

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Email Marketing Specialist

June 25, 2024

•

6 min read

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